VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Japan should strive for a new form of capitalism to reduce income disparity that has worsened under the coronavirus pandemic, says former foreign minister Fumio Kishida who hopes to become leader of the ruling party and next prime minister.

Kishida is the only Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) member to announce his candidacy in a leadership vote on Sept. 29, after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga last Friday said he would step down. The winner of the vote is all but assured to be Japan's next prime minister.

Popular COVID-19 vaccination minister Taro Kono and former internal minister Sanae Takaichi have signalled their ambition to run.

Takaichi, 60, is expected to announce her candidacy later on Wednesday and if successful would become Japan's first female leader.

Kishida said the neo-liberalism and deregulation that Japan has embraced during the reform era of former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi in the early 2000s have widened the gap between the haves and have-nots in the society.

"Without distribution of wealth there won't be a rise in consumption and demand...there won't be further growth if distribution of wealth is lost," Kishida said at a presentation of his economic proposals in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Kishida repeated a call for an economic stimulus package worth "tens of trillions of yen" to combat the coronavirus pandemic. He said he would use fiscal spending for achieving economic stability while not giving up on fiscal consolidation.

He said the Bank of Japan should maintain its 2% inflation target as "it is a global standard" and changing it would send a wrong message to markets, and would leave the sales tax untouched for the time being.

Kishida also called for setting up a 10 trillion yen ($90.7 billion) university fund to stimulate science and promotion of renewable energy, while retaining nuclear power technology, which he said should be considered as a clean energy option.

TAKAICHI TO JOIN RACE

Takaichi has the backing of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, local media said, and would base her challenge on policies to fend off China's technology threat and help strengthen an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Takaichi became the first female internal affairs minister in the second Abe administration in 2014.

But even as local media have said influential Abe has thrown his support behind Takaichi helping her obtain the 20 lawmaker backers needed to run in the leadership election, she has ranked poorly in popularity ratings, which could hamper her chances.

Grass-roots LDP members will vote in the leadership election along with the party's members of parliament, and whoever wins will lead the party to the lower house election that must be held by Nov. 28, making public appeal an important factor in choosing the new leader.

Takaichi has said she wanted to work on issues left unresolved by previous administrations, such as achieving 2% inflation, and introducing legislation "that prevents the leakage of sensitive information to China".

She said an extra budget needed to be compiled as soon as possible to bolster Japan's medical system, which is under strain because of the pandemic.

A member of the party's most conservative wing, she often visits the Yasukuni Shrine, a memorial to Japan's war dead. Such visits by Japanese leaders infuriate old wartime foes such as China and South Korea.

She has also opposed allowing married couples to keep separate surnames, to the disappointment of promoters of women's rights. (Reuters)

Australia has passed legislation that could set a precedent for who pays to clean up the fossil fuel industry in Asia, making former owners of oil and gas fields responsible for the costs of dismantling facilities if later owners fail.

The new law provides a blueprint for governments tussling with the oil and gas industry over the removal of hundreds of obsolete energy facilities, particularly as the world moves to a lower-carbon economy.

The cost of decommissioning offshore facilities in Australia is expected to run to $40 billion, with half of that in the next 10 years. For Asia-Pacific as a whole the clean-up bill is estimated at $100 billion out to 2050, say consultants Wood Mackenzie.

Australia's legislation steps up scrutiny of asset sales to ensure any new owner has the financial and technical capacity to handle decommissioning. Most controversially, it introduces trailing liability, modelled on the UK's North Sea regime, holding former owners of assets liable for decommissioning if a current owner goes bust.

Selling mature oil and gas fields to niche players with low overheads who can prolong the lives of the fields profitably has been standard practice at ageing sites around the world, especially in the North Sea, U.S. Gulf of Mexico and off Australia.

However, Australia acted after being left to handle the decommissioning, estimated at up to A$1 billion ($725 million), of the Laminaria-Corallina oil fields in the Timor Sea, abandoned by a small company when it collapsed in 2019.

Stricter criteria are expected to deter those kinds of sales in Australia at a time when several oil and gas fields are nearing the end of their lives off southeastern and Western Australia, to the chagrin of the industry.

"If you get everything else right, one would hope you would never find yourself in a position where trailing liability has to be exercised," said Andrew McConville, chief executive of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, the industry's main lobby group.

Already, Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and partner BHP Group (BHP.AX) pulled the sale of assets off southeastern Australia after a warning from government to be careful in choosing buyers. BHP last month agreed instead to merge its petroleum business with Australia's top independent gas producer Woodside Petroleum (WPL.AX).

AGEING ASIAN FIELDS

Around Southeast Asia there are hundreds of platforms nearing the end of their lives, but countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam have no overarching decommissioning rules. Companies operate as contractors with production sharing contracts with the state.

Older contracts did not give much consideration to abandonment, and as those contracts have expired or international oil companies have exited, there has been legal uncertainty over who should pay for decommissioning, Wood Mackenzie research director Andrew Harwood said.

In Thailand, Chevron Corp (CVX.N) is trying to resolve a dispute which has held up the handover of operations at the Erawan gas field in the Gulf of Thailand to Thailand's PTT Exporation and Production Pcl (PTTEP)(PTTEP.BK).

Thailand wants Chevron to pay the full rehabilitation costs of around $2 billion for the Erawan field, including assets it is due to hand over to PTTEP.

"The Gulf of Thailand situation is a challenge," Harwood said. "And it could perhaps delay PTT's efforts to invest in those blocks."

In Malaysia, if a company's operating contract has expired before decommissioning work is done, the work is picked up by state-owned Petronas, exposing it to issues such as currency risk, which can blow out rehabilitation costs.

"Given the trend of the large oil and gas companies exiting the region and the entry of smaller players who are less financially secure ... principles such as trailing liability could be something which the country and Petronas explore in order to mitigate some of these risks," said Fariz Aziz, a partner at Malaysian law firm Skrine.

Indonesia, the most proactive on tackling abandonment issues over the past several years, requires operators to set aside funds for decommissioning.

The country's oil and gas regulator, SKK Migas, said in July it has prepared a decommissioning roadmap for 100 platforms no longer in use, and is considering reusing facilities, including as reefs, to monitor weather or for border security.

WoodMac's Harwood said Southeast Asia will likely see more examples of arbitration when there's a disagreement on who foots the bill, but trailing liability is set to become a feature of new contracts.

"It can be done and we'll definitely see that being included in contracts going forward," he said. (Reuters)

South Korean engineer Shaun has big plans to develop the parcels of land he has snapped up for millions of won (thousands of dollars) in recent years into long-term moneyspinners.

"I'm planning to design my building which is suitable to host K-pop live performances and K-drama screenings," the 30-year-old investor told Reuters. "That can probably lead to a profitable business model in two to three years."

And construction won't be hampered by any coronavirus pandemic-spurred labour shortages or increased costs. Shaun's grand project is all in the blockchain-based virtual world Decentraland.

The "metaverse" may be a futuristic prospect for most of the world, but it's increasingly a reality in South Korea where soaring home prices and income inequality have enticed the so-called Generation MZ, or Gen MZ, into alternative online worlds.

Their digital avatars play games, walk around with friends, host social gatherings, shop and party - and make plans to build cities and profitable businesses.

Shaun, who declined to be identified other than by the name of his Decentraland avatar, has gradually immersed himself in the platform over the past three years.

Users can buy land in this virtual world with the aim of hosting real businesses there, like a nightclub that charges users for access. Just like in the real world, the success of the businesses and the communities around them can raise the value of your virtual land.

And investment managers, telecom firms and even the South Korean government are all plugging in.

Samsung Asset Management expects its Samsung Global Metaverse Fund , launched in late June, to easily beat its goal of drawing 100 billion won ($86.49 million) by the end of 2021, with around 1-2 billion won flowing in everyday.

Choi Byung-geun, Samsung Asset Management vice president, said interest in the metaverse had grown since the pandemic as people worked remotely. The Samsung fund launched just two weeks after KB Asset Management's KB Global Metaverse Economy Fund .

"With global big tech companies such as Facebook seeing their business direction shifting toward the metaverse, the industry is raking in money," Choi said.

SK Telecom, the country's largest mobile carrier, launched a metaverse 'ifland' in July where denizens can host and attend meetings with other animated avatars.

"As the social trend shifted to non-face-to-face due to the pandemic era, the demand (for metaverse services) jumped," an SK Telecom official told Reuters. "There are thousands of rooms being created everyday and tens of thousands of daily users."

SK Telecom is part of a 'Metaverse Alliance' launched by the South Korean government in mid-May that includes more than 200 companies and institutions.

A Ministry of Science and ICT official told Reuters the government hopes to play a lead role in the metaverse industry. In a 604.4 trillion won budget for 2022 unveiled last week, the government earmarked 9.3 trillion won to accelerate a digital transformation and foster new industries such as the metaverse.

MZ GENERATION

South Koreans have been especially open to the attractions of the metaverse, even though it remains unclear to what extent a full replication of real life is possible, or how long it will take to develop.

Social experts attribute the interest to the disgruntled MZ generation - a term coined in the country that merges Millennials and Generation Z, encompassing those born between 1981 and the early 2010s.

As the coronavirus pandemic has dragged on, a new lexicon has sprung up in South Korea for the "untact" - the opposite of "contact" - economy.

"The craze for the metaverse reflects the sadness and anger of the MZ generation due to polarisation," said Kim Sang-kyun, an industrial engineering professor at Kangwon National University who has published two best-selling books on the metaverse since late 2020.

"They do not consider the metaverse as an alternative or replacement of reality, instead it's just another part of their lives," said Kim. "They are the generation that has communicated with the world through devices since birth, unlike the older generation."

For 37-year old Choi Ji-ung, it was frustration with real estate prices and regulations in the physical world that drove him to buy property in geolocation-based platform Earth 2.

Choi's 50 million won investment in the pricey Gangnam district in Seoul on Earth 2 is something he can only dream of in the real world.

"It was easy to purchase and not as expensive as I thought," he said.

Fuelling many of the metaverse platforms are non-fungible tokens (NFT), intangible digital assets encompassing everything from artworks and videos to clothes and avatars, which are purchased with cryptocurrency.

Decentraland offers a limited number of digital land parcels, or LAND, in the form of NFTs that are acquired using MANA, a fungible token that acts as the game's currency. MANA, an altcoin, can be purchased with fiat currency on limited cryptocurrency exchanges or in a swap with digital currencies like bitcoin or ether.

As in the real world, land parcels located closer to popular districts are more valuable than others. Some land parcels that sold for about $20 each when Decentraland launched in 2017 now change hands for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As the platform develops, Shaun and other landowners believe they will be able to make money by using their land for a variety of commercial businesses, such as building concert venues and charging admission for performances.

Changes and developments to Decentraland are overseen by the Decentraland Foundation, which was set up as a nonprofit organization to act on behalf of users.

PROPERTY DEVELOPERS

Wang Keun-il, a 36-year-old fintech entrepreneur, owns lands in North Korea's capital Pyongyang, Vatican City and Egypt on Earth 2, where he plans to build a profitable tourism or educational business.

Earth 2, which launched in November, is not a fully-fledged metaverse environment, but rather a marketplace for selling digital tiles which represent parts of the Earth. Users cannot currently "enter" the land they have bought, meaning Wang has taken a gamble on a world that is yet to materialise.

Earth 2 Chief Executive Shane Isaac told Reuters South Koreans were the most active users on the platform, based on self-affiliation, spending about $9.1 million, followed by the United States with $7.5 million and Italy with $3.9 million.

Decentraland said its platform had more than 7,067 active users from South Korea in the 30 days to Sept. 1, second only to the United States.

"People won't forget about or move away from the industry once things return to something resembling normality," Dave Carr, a communications lead for Decentraland Foundation, told Reuters.

"If anything, this period will define the most important, valuable or relevant entities and experiences."

On the stock market, net purchases of gaming firm Roblox Corp (RBLX.N) made it the top foreign stock purchased in June and July, Korea Securities Depository (KSD) data showed.

Shares in local AR and VR technology firms MAXST (377030.KQ) and WYSIWYG STUDIOS (299900.KQ) have soared in recent months.

Earth 2 investor Choi is conscious of potential metaverse pitfalls but excited: "Depending on the point of view, some could see it as a ridiculous thing or a bubble, but some see it as an opportunity." (Reuters)

Hong Kong police on Wednesday arrested four members of a pro-democracy group that organises the annual June 4 rally to commemorate those who died in the bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, in the latest blow to the opposition movement.

Activist and barrister Chow Hang Tung of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China was arrested along with three others, the group said.

“I want to tell Hong Kongers that we need to continue to resist, don’t surrender to the unreasonable power quickly and easily," Chow told media on Tuesday when she went to police headquarters to tell officers she would not provide information they had requested.

Police sent a letter to the alliance in August requesting information about its membership, finances and activities by Sept. 7, according to a copy the group sent to reporters.

The letter accused the alliance of being "an agent of foreign forces". Failure to provide the information by the deadline could result in a HK$100,000 fine and six months in jail, the letter said.

The National Security Department said it had arrested three men and one woman, aged 36 to 57, for failing to comply with national security law requirements. It did not identify them.

The department said investigations were ongoing and it did not rule out further arrests.

The national security law punishes what authorities broadly refer to as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

Chow's arrest came hours before she was due to represent detained opposition politician Gwyneth Ho, who is charged with conspiracy to commit subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law, at a bail hearing.

Ho withdrew her bail application at the High Court after Judge Esther Toh declined her request to lift reporting restrictions for the hearing.

Alliance leaders Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan are already in jail over their roles in anti-government protests that roiled the city in 2019.

The group said in July that it had laid off staff members to ensure their safety and that half of its committee members had resigned. (Reuters)